Name your Scotch

For all you Scotch connoisseurs, Name your scotch and describe it best you can. Taste in Scotch very much is an individual thing. I can never understand why someone would try to "aquire" the taste for something they don't like but each to their own.

I started off very cheap. Johnny Walker Red, and only occasionally. Was a Rye drinker at the time. But Diabetes came along and Doc restricted me to two a day. When I said I would save up the week and let loose on the weekends, he sort of pulled the plug on that one. So I started trying the better ones. I now keep 4 or 5 bottles of single malt up in the cupboard.

1. Highland Park 12 year Single. This is at this time my fav. Sweet and smooth. Price not bad about $67. Distinctly flavoured like Dranbui but not as sweet.

2. The Glenlivet 18 is a very fine smooth single as well. Not as sweet at Highland but very nice and runs around $85-$90.00

3. Cardhu 12. Another very fine rounded single malt, not as sweet as Highland park but a very conservative flavour.

4. Oban sit right there with Cardhu. A conservative , mid flavoured single malt. It too runs around $80.

5. Lagavulin 16. Now this one has a story behind it. I was window shopping for Scotch (can you believe that) and read the label. It was priced out at $100. so I went back and forth on this one. But finally bought it. I was traveling at this time so I packed it away and waited till I got home. I was waiting in anticipation for this. Poured myself a shot and had a nice sip and the first thing I thought was I DON'T LIKE THIS. Put the cap on it and put it in my cupboard. Thought I could mix it with Dranbui and make a not too bad rusty nail out of it. But the next day I tried it again. And now that I was not anticipating anything, it indeed was a fine Scotch. But it was very peaty. The water used to make this fine Scotch obviously runs through a peat bog in Scotland leaving it with this very rustic flavour which I do enjoy very much from time to time.

I am anxious to try Glenn Breton. The only single malt distilled in Canada, maybe outside Scotland. Comes from Cape Breton Island on Canada's east coast. It too is a pricey one but I will some day give it a try, maybe on Robbie Burns Day while I eat some haggis.

Warning for you Americans. The same product down there is far less expensive than here. They tend to tax the shit out of our alcohol.:canada:

 

I like Dewars for scotch, but much prefer a good old Kentucky bourbon. Knob Creek is a favorite, I have a sweet tooth...

 

Now I gotta tell ya, I have only tried Bourbon once. Don't remember what it was but it was just awful. And I know that is really popular down there. Sort of thought this would show up on this thread but didn't think it would be the first reply. Run a few names by me so I can give them a try. How do you drink them? Mixed, with what?

 

I drink scotch and bourbon straight, occasionally on the rocks but I prefer room temperature. Johnnie Walker Blue label is good stuff, that's about all I have here, besides the regular stuff for mixing drinks. I've got some real high-test homebrewed schnapps that I "imported" on my last trip to Europe. :flame:

 

You know... for the price that you probably pay for JW Blue, you can probably get The Gelnlivet 12 year old Single Malt. It is a fine Scotch too. All the Johnny Walkers and Chevas are Blends. I guess I am a snob.

But there is a very cheap blend which is actually quite nice. Famous Grouse. Don't know if it is available down there.

 

Haven't really tried scotch; but am rather found of smooth sipping whiskeys like Crown Royale & Gentleman Jack on the rocks or w/ water on the rocks.

 

Crown Royal is a blended Canadain Rye Whiskey and is probably one of the nicest Rye Whiskeys out there. Used to be my favorite. Crown Royal Limited is even finer than Crown....and not that much more. But I don't recall seeing it down there in my travels. It is slightly darker amber in colour and a little sweeter than Crown. I think The Glenlivet 12 or if you want to spurge, Highland Park 12 you may like. Try it at a good bar first. It is a lot to spend on something you may not like

 

I haven't found a Scotch that I like enough to justify paying the idiotic price for it. Cheap Scotch is like $30 a bottle. My BIL has a bottle of Laphroaig that cost nearly $300. I think it tastes terrible & I can buy 15 bottles of JD No7 for that much. I do know that almost all the Scotch's I've liked have been blends.

I like all the Jack Daniels, No 7, Gentleman Jack & Single Barrell. I recently tried Makers Mark & it's not too bad. Jim Bean is crap & I wouldn't drink it if you gave it to me.

If it's not a JD product or beer, I drink a red wine or Port.

KC-10 FE out...
lane: :usa2:

 

Your getting hosed KC. Even here JW Red is cheaper than that and it is not the cheapest. But like I said, either you like Scotch or you don't. Gotta try another one of your bourbons though. The one, and only one I might add, I tasted I would have treated fence posts with.:yuck: uke:

 

Being under age, the only Scotch I consume is sold by 3M.

 

Randy, you started one! And the first thing you do is question why somebody would want to acquire a taste for something...

You know, that really is a good question. I expect that most people who drink alcohol have gotten violently ill at least once. Most of us don't stop, though. So why would one struggle to like something that is somewhat toxic, expensive, and potentially problematic? Hmm, makes me think of most of the women in my life...

Back in my gloriously irresponsible days, I had a houseboat on the Sacramento Delta. Life, for most of us, was a non-stop party. I used to consume alarmingly high volumes of a Scotch called "Old Smugglers". It wasn't bad at all for a cheap Scotch. How cheap, you ask? Try about $13 for 1.75 litres. Woo-hoo!!!! Glad I lived through all that!

Generally I stick with Glenmorangie. Nice balanced taste, smooth on the way in, mellow on the way out, lots of body in between. If I am at a place that has a Scotch menu, I occasionally try something new. No names come to mind right off, so nothing has struck me hard enough to want to buy a bottle.

Until you mentioned it in the other thread, I had forgotten hearing about adding water to the stronger single malts. Looks like I had better start all over again. Strictly research, of course.

 

My Mother brought me up in the world that if and when I drink anything besides beer I drink Jack Daniels Black label on the rocks...

Oterwise it's beer for me and see the "Yay Beer" thread for my list on that subject...:lol:

 

When I still drank. Knockando 16 was my favorite Whisky. The 12 was good, but the 16 had a more nutty flavor that I enjoyed. (Beer choice was SNPA or Hinano)

 

KC:

Most of the Islay single malts are peaty. TheLaphroaig is the closest Scotch I've had to actually eating landscaping mulch it is so smoky-peaty. Not the place to start IMHO.

Try The Macallan, or Dalwhinnie for a milder experience.

I prefer to sip the product neat, in a brandy sifter, in the cool of the evening.

Single malts are more fun than wines since I don't have to try to remember as many different vineyards, vintages, and what goes with what.... just a relatively small number of distilleries, with how many years old the product is. I don't need special devices to open the bottle and it is happily stored on a shelf.

 

You guys have such refined taste... I am still in the point of life where cheap rum and tequila will do it for me. I've had to separate myself from Tarantula though, it's just way too smooth with Rockstar and I ended up drinking a whole 5th one night. Luckily for me no hangover the next day, and no consequences to speak of.


**Edit**

Forgot I was going to mention Scotch goes great with ice cream!!

 

Yup....that's one I think I would skip. Remember treating fence posts?

 

I am 53 years old, brought up around alcohol ( father was a beer salesman) worked in a brewery for 5 years, was drunk the later four of them and if I count the number of times I have been sick from drinking on one hand I would still have over 50% of my fingers left. And I have all my digits and no extras. That said, one time I drank myself sick on beer and I still prefer that most the time. About the women in your life....well I won't go there. America and Canada DON'T want to know.

And good point. I forgot all about Glenmorange. Yes that is a nice one as well. The one that always amazes me though is Glenn Fiddich. Way over rated in my mind for it's price. I think part of it is the shape of the bottle. It is not a bad scotch by any means but for my taste, there are better flavours out there for this money.

And Nozzel. Dalwhinnie is definitely another nice one. I didn't realize there would be so many people who appreciate a fine scotch on this site. But like I said before, it all started with a fine ride.

 

15 year old Glenfiddich

 

What about your butterscotch life savers?